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“Please test your servants for ten days, and let them give us
vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our
appearance be examined before you, and the appearance of
the young men who eat the portion of the king’s delicacies;
and as you see fit, so deal with your servants.”
Daniel was pretty sure of himself, wasn’t he? When he was
questioned about his choice not to eat the king’s delicacies,
he said, “Test me, and let the results be the judge.” With
this kind of attitude, there is power in Daniel’s integrity – he
chooses to live by God’s words, not just because he’s been
told to, but because he is convinced, he is convicted, that
God’s way is the better way.
I’d heard this phrase once that illustrates well the meaning
of “defile” – “99% pure, 1% sewer, I will not drink.” Daniel
didn’t just think that the king’s food is a little bit bad – he
believed that it would make him foul, dirty, unclean. Like I
said earlier, most of you know the difference between right
and wrong on many moral and ethical issues, but how many
of you feel strongly about the right and wrong?
God tells us to love one another. Do you think making fun of
each other and putting each other down is a good way to
love one another? Do you think God smiles and the angels
rejoice when we put each other down? How strongly do you
feel about doing the right thing? Or put another way – how
strongly do you feel about doing the wrong thing? Do you
feel dirty? Defiled?
And just how would Daniel have known what the right thing
is? The Bible doesn’t tell us explicitly, but we see in chapter
1 of Daniel that the king took young men who showed
aptitude in every kind of learning, were well informed, and
were quick to understand. I would assume that his parents
raised him well. And I would also venture that he knew
God’s teachings well, because it was obvious from his
actions that he knew what God decreed. It’s hard to do the
right thing if you don’t know what the right thing is, isn’t it?
We spend week after week studying God’s Word, learning
about what God wants us to do – so that when the day
comes and we are challenged, we will know what the right
thing is.
And how often does Daniel do the right thing? Just once in a
while? Or all the time? Let’s turn to Daniel 6:10-24 to see
Daniel’s consistency in doing the right thing.
So what does Daniel do? The Bible tells us that when he got
home, he got on his knees and prayed, three times a day,
just as he had done before. In the New King James version,
it says that he did this three times a day “as was his custom
since early days”. The key to being able to do the right thing
when you are challenged? A strong history of having done
the right thing. It’s hard to be able to take a stand for what’s
right if you’ve never done it before. But if you do it all the
time, taking a stand in the little things, when you face big
challenges, it will be easy to keep choosing to do the right
thing.